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Will You Be A Victim Of Elder Abuse?

You have probably seen or heard the statistics that senior citizens are the fastest-growing segment of our country. In today’s article we discuss the prevalence of elder abuse in the United States and ask the question ‘will you be a victim of elder abuse?’

The Federal Interagency Forum on Aging-Related Statistics released a 200 Page Report that showed “In 2010, there were 40 million people age 65 and over in the United States, accounting for 13 percent of the total population. The older population in 2030 is projected to be twice as large as in 2000, growing from 35 million to 72 million and representing nearly 20 percent of the total U.S. population.”

As seniors age and move into the “Golden years”, a lot of changes happen in their lives, and many of those changes have to do with health. The fact is, more and more of these seniors will be living in nursing homes and long-term care facilities. These facilities are ill-equipped now to handle the present influx of patients and are projected to be even more so in the future.

Not only are there not enough facilities and beds to house these seniors but there are not enough trained personnel to staff those facilities. To be perfectly honest, private nursing homes with profit as a motive are not prepared or willing to pay higher wages that might attract better employees for the low level staffers needed to run the facility.

The Centers for Disease Control released a report that claimed “elder abuse is a significant public health problem. Each year, hundreds of thousands of adults over the age of 60 are abused, neglected, or financially exploited. In the United States alone, more than 500,000 older adults are believed to be abused or neglected each year.”

Currently, there are no federal laws either prohibiting or specifically authorizing the use of video monitoring in a nursing home. The Federal Wiretapping Law governs the use of surveillance devices that record audio communications but does not regulate silent video surveillance.

Several states have legalized the use of hidden cameras in nursing homes-among them Oklahoma, New Mexico, Texas and Ohio. Other states including New York and Illinois are in the process of drafting legislation similar legislation.

“The most recent major studies on incidents reported that 7.6% to 10% of study participants experienced abuse in the prior year. And that only one out of 14 cases of elder abuse ever comes to the attention of the authorities. In a New York state study, for every case reported 24 were unknown.

According to the American Psychological Association, an estimated 2.1 million older Americans become victims somewhere on the spectrum of abuse.”

Will You Be A Victim Of Elder Abuse?

Unless things change for the better drastically, when your time comes, you may become a victim too!

Plant Spy Camera

This Plant Spy Camera is not only an attractive addition to a room but it also allows you to stream live footage via the Internet to a PC or smart phone. Hidden spy cameras may be the only way to document instances of elder abuse.

Are you protecting your relatives in a nursing home? Please share your experience. We want to hear your thoughts.